SGAmmo has both on sale these days on a daily/weekly basis. Sign up for their email notices.Ammoseek is easy to use. In spite of the huge number of listings, I don't think anyone has all the sales on a list.

NOW is the time to catch some sales and stack it!

--------After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.

Posts: 3133 | Location: AZ - West side of the valley | Registered: October 26, 2006

If you can come down to 50 grain, we've had the best results with Federal American Eagle Jacketed Hollow Point (AE223G). It is twice as accurate as the more common 55 grain FMJ, and not that much more expensive. We've seen it outperform match-grade ammo. Very consistent performance.

SGAmmo has both on sale these days on a daily/weekly basis. Sign up for their email notices.Ammoseek is easy to use. In spite of the huge number of listings, I don't think anyone has all the sales on a list.

NOW is the time to catch some sales and stack it!

I’ve got plenty of m193 and Ss109 along with some 62 gr TBBC. I want to stretch my rifles legs so to speak without paying $1.00 per round.

-----------------------------------------------------------TCB all the time...

Of course, Hornady sells Vmax ammo. I find the 55 grain Vmax more accurate than the other Vmax weights across a wide variety of barrels. Vmax ammo is available through Black Hills, HSM, Fiocchi, and others.

I forgot to mention Hornady's new Frontier HPBT "match" ammo line. Frontier is reasonably priced, has options in 223 and 5.56, shows very consistent chrono velocities in all my ARs, and uses some decent bullets. After quite a bit of testing I have decided not to use the Frontier line, but it may work for you.

For background, my AR uppers have barrels from 14.5" to 24" long, with twist rates from 1/7 to 1/8. All barrels are stainless, my best match upper is 223 chambered, the others are 5.56 chambered.

Frontier's 55 grain was the most accurate across all barrels. The 223 load was more accurate than the 5.56 load. My best 5-round groups were about .9" at 100 yards, with the worst around 2 inches.

Frontier's 62 grain load generally showed inconsistent accuracy for me. I only tried the 5.56 ammo. A couple barrels obtained some 1.5" groups, but most were in the 2" to 3" ballpark.

Frontier's 68 grain loads were even more varied. Again, the 223 loads generally were more accurate than their 5.56 counterparts. One group could be around 1", with the next group at 2" or 3". I even got a few 4" groups.

The 75 grain 5.56 ammo did OK, but nothing special. A few groups a little over 1", then quite a few around 2".

As a baseline, my uppers consistently produce groups in the .75" to 1.25" ballpark with their preferred factory match ammo. My best uppers rarely produce groups larger than 1" with match ammo, and they produced a number of groups between .5" and .75".

I have used a fair amount of the 77 grain IMI with inconsistent results. Usually the best I can expect is about 1 MOA ~100 yards, but often with unexpected flyers that open groups up to 1.5" or more. I don’t, however, have exceptionally accurate rifles chambered for 223/5.56. What should be the most accurate is a Tikka T3 that handles 5.56 ammunition with no high pressure signs despite its 223 chambering. The rifling is 1/8 inches, and perhaps that’s a little slow for the bullet, but Bryan Litz’s data says that should be fine, especially at my elevation. Slower twists that stabilize the bullet properly are supposedly better for precision. The load seems to be a little better in a Colt LE6940 which is hardly a match rifle, but that may just be lack of sufficient data.

The velocity figures for the IMI 77 grain were also not impressive. With an admittedly small sample of 10 rounds from the Tikka, the extreme spread was 107 fps and the standard deviation was 34 fps—far higher than what Litz says is necessary for decent precision.

The best load I’ve found for the Tikka has been the Hornady 55 grain A-MAX TAP, but the Speer 75 grain Gold Dot and Federal 69 grain Gold Medal Match are usually consistent at just under 1 MOA at 100 yards.

“I can’t give you brains, but I can give you a diploma.”— The Wizard of Oz

Originally posted by Tgrshrk99:Have you ever tried the IMI 69 or 77 gr razor core ammo?

Not in my own rifles, but in a buddy's Larue. His Larue shot ammo neck and neck with my Wilson Combat ARs. The IMI ammo in his Larue showed respectable accuracy, but not up to the standards of Federal and Black Hills with similar SMK bullets. As a result, I saw no need to try IMI ammo.

Our IMI results were similar to what Sigfreund states above -- pretty good groups, if one would throw out the almost inevitable flyer.

Pretty typical results for cheap and inaccurate ammo. What I've seen with my ARs for the types I've tried:

American Eagle 223 55 grain FMJ:2.03" and 2.28" for a 24" 1/8 DSC barrel2.00" for an 18" 1/7 Wilson barrel1.20" and 2.50" for my #1 16" 1/9 Wilson barrel1.52" and 1.93" for my #3 16" 1/8 Wilson barrel2.10" and 2.75" for a 14.5" 1/7 LWRC barrelAll these barrels have 5.56 chambers. AE223 has become my close range fodder, when competitions require that I only need to hit IPSC A&B zones at close range.

Yeah. I’m going to pick up some more 20 round boxes of different type stuff. After a couple of more types, I’ll have a pretty good idea of what lighter plunking ammo to us. I’m curious about the Hornady Frontier loadings. I’ll fine the Hornady Black another go as I’m pretty sure I pulled one left. If so it would be less than 2”.

After that I’ll test the heavier/longer loadings. Fun to see them side beside. Five shot strings tell a different story. Had I been shooting 3 shot strings, 2 groups would have been sub MOA. One was 1/4” after 3 shots.

-----------------------------------------------------------TCB all the time...

If you get a FMJ round that shoots well, it will be the luck of the draw with your barrel. Might be luck of the draw with that batch of ammo, too. FMJ bullets are notoriously inconsistent from one to the next. Shoot enough FMJ ammo and you'll get a 3- or 4-round bughole, then one in the next county. The next group from that same ammo might look like a shotgun pattern. FMJ ammo also exhibits pretty wonky accuracy as distance increases. Trying to hit reasonable sized plates at 300-400 yards with FMJ is a good warmup for buying lotto tickets.

3 round groups have virtually no value for anything other than true match ammo. And by match-grade I mean ammo that can produce 10 round bughole groups day after day. For my precision bolt action rifles, I need only 2 or 3 rounds on paper before a match to confirm that my zero is still good. Same with my best precision AR, as when my head's not up my backside, it has little problem doing half-inch groups with ammo I use in precision matches. Such confidence in POI also demands consistent fundamentals in marksmanship.

That's why I test new ammo's 100 yard accuracy with a minimum of two 5-round groups back-to-back. If the two groups for that particular ammo don't have similar distribution and points of impact, I keep shooting more 5-round groups until I get a consistent feel. The cheaper & less accurate the ammo, the greater the sample size is necessary to obtain reasonable data on its accuracy potential.

Federal Fusion 62 gr. Non MSR. 1.8”. Good stuff for defensive or hunting. Group was not small, but was very concentric with no outliers.

I shot some Sig Sauer 77 gr OTM match also. Best group I could get was 1.8” thought it would be a little tighter.

I am kind of liking the Hornady 62 gr FMJ. It groups well for 62 gr. If I can repeat the performance of the 223 Black with the 556 Frontier load, and it is cheap enough, that may be one to stock up on.

-----------------------------------------------------------TCB all the time...